The Carpet at the Pines Motel

Autumn of 2017. A two-story motel off Route 9 in northern Vermont, just outside the town of Millbrook. The Pines Motel had been there since the fifties, and by the time I pulled into its gravel lot around midnight, it looked like it had been holding its breath for decades. The neon sign buzzed but only half the letters lit up: PINES MOT L. The office smelled of burnt coffee and old carpet. The night clerk barely looked up when I asked for a room. He slid a key across the counter—Room 212, second floor, at the far end of the balcony. I didn't think much of the way he said 'the far end' until I got there. The carpet in the hallway had a pattern I couldn't stop looking at. Deep burgundy, almost black, with a floral motif that shifted depending on the angle of the light. It was only later, when I tried to sleep, that I realized the pattern hadn't changed—it had moved. A story about a motel that keeps its rooms occupied in ways no one talks about. About the things that live in places that are too quiet, too old, too forgotten. And about the one night I tried to leave and couldn't find the door. #ThePinesMotel #Route9 #MillbrookVermont #Room212 #BurgundyCarpet #Autumn2017 #CandlelightStories #TheOrderOfQuietThings #MotelHorror #Luna #AtmosphericHorror #SlowBurnHorror #SleepParalysis #DoorThatIsntThere #FexingoHorror #HorrorPodcast #Anthology #Episode15 Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo